


pieces of you on parts of me

by ThePackWantstheD



Series: Rambling Headcanon Fics [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Magical Tattoos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-07-11 17:13:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15976808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePackWantstheD/pseuds/ThePackWantstheD
Summary: In world were the significant events of your life leave tattoos on your soulmates au, Lance and Griffin find themselves painted with each other's story





	1. my youth is yours

**Author's Note:**

> Wasn't sure if I was going to continue this at first, but honestly I love it and I love these two and I wanted to write more for them anyway. 
> 
> chapter title from Troye Sivan's YOUTH.

You know those aus where the significant events of your life leave marks on your skin? What about a soulmate au where the significant events in your life leave marks on your SOULMATES skin?

 

 

Griffance au where Griffin has a collection of white ginger flowers that sprout from his ankles, because Lance’s family is a grounding force in his life. His mother tells him that there were five to begin with, when Griffin was nothing but a baby himself, but more appear so quickly that Griffin has never seen so few of them on his ankles. By the time Griffin is fifteen there are so many that he can't really them all since the petals overlap and the stems all twist together. He does not know it when he's growing up, but there is one flower there for each member of Lance’s family. The five he starts with are for Lance’s closest family members - his mother, his father, and his three siblings; Marco, Luis, and Veronica. 

Griffin’s back is a mural, a tribute to Lance's greatest passions. His lower back is painted with the sea, rolling waves and calm water with vague shadows showing things hidden in unseen depths. His upper back is painted with the night sky, inky blackness spreading from shoulder to shoulder punctuated by the bright white stars that Lance sees from his bedroom in Cuba. Around the time he turns twelve, a small space craft is added to the scene, Lance’s love of flying marking Griffin's skin. When Lance hits his teenage years and his self-confidence begins to waver, the middle of Griffin’s back begins shading itself in with purples and blues, a sad sky to reflect Lance’s saddest moments. It creeps along the space, slowly filling in until the sky touches the sea. 

 

 

Lance has a small, rounded triskelion behind his ear, because Griffin is an only child and his parents are everything to him. They are a unit of three. He loves and respects them both, listens to everything they tell him even if he doesn’t always follow their advice. Griffin’s father is a pilot in the Air Force and the first time he takes Griffin flying, an aircraft embeds itself over Lance’s heart. Lance’s passions are many and varied, but Griffin is the sort of person who lets one thing take over his entire heart. Lance might have room to love the sea and the sky in equal measure, but Griffin doesn't have the room in his heart to be as passionate about something else as he is about flying.

Around Lance’s wrist is the image of a braided leather bracelet that grows as he ages, a sign of the hardwork and determination that Griffin puts into everything he does. Red and yellow and orange beads begin to weave into the leather when they are older, starting with the first time Griffin gets upstaged by Keith in middle school. Their symbols of his anger and rage and jealousy, appearing every time Griffin gets angry because he’s trying  _so hard_  to reach his goals and others always seem to be getting what Griffin has been reaching for his entire life without even half of the work.

 

 

Lance McClain and James Griffin join the Galaxy Garrison on the same day. 

Neither of them know that the other bears their marks. Neither of them know that the person whose body carries their soul is in the same place as them, so close to them but so far at the same time.

That first day, when the entrance ceremony has ended and the freshmen begin moving into their dorms, a lei etches itself along Griffin's collar. It's a sign of how deep Lance and Hunk's bond will be that they mark each other immediately, that the mark appears as something so large and vibrant, that it appears so close to Griffin's heart and throat. Hunk wraps himself around the most vulnerable parts of Lance's soulmate because Hunk is someone Lance will trust with the most vulnerable parts of himself and that bond cements itself the very first time they meet. 

Griffin gets another mark the day Lance has his first cargo pilot class. It's a duck on his rib-cage - a Campbell Teal, beautiful but flightless. 

A few weeks into the school term, Lance finds a Lignum Vitae - Jamaica’s national flower - on the palm of his right hand. It rests in the place where Griffin and Kinkade touched during their first handshake. It's taken time for them to grow close, but their more than roommates, careening towards close friends, and the bond is strong enough to mark them. 

 

 

The first year at the Garrison rolls by.

Griffin and Lance know _of_ each other - because Lance is loud and charismatic and it's impossible for anyone in the Garrison not to know him while Griffin is second to Keith, standing between Lance and his rival - but they do not _really_ know each other, are not friends or even really acquaintances. 

They are faces in the hall to each other, constantly passing each other without knowing how important they can be to each other. 

 

More time passes.

Lance gets a small, tarnished silver medal in the crook of his elbow. A visual reminder of Griffin's struggle to feel like he's doing enough, to feel like he's good enough. 

Their second and third years in the Garrison pass. 

 

Keith drops out at the end of third year.

Lance gets moved into the fighter class, but he gets constantly berated by Iverson for not being Keith. 

Griffin takes his shirt off to change one day and Kinkade points out that the ship on Griffin's back is rusted and tarnished. He does not know that the reason it looks that way now is because Iverson's words have been seeping into Lance's head and heart, poisoning Lance's dreams. 

 

Griffin begins noticing Lance for the first time. He begins to see how smart Lance must be to be on their level even without taking their classes, how hard he must have worked to be only a few steps behind them in their final year, how strong Lance must be to look Iverson in the eyes each day. 

He doesn't get much further than noticing, though, before Lance and both of his teammates disappear in the middle of the night. 

Griffin doesn't know that the events are related since it'll be days before the Garrison fesses up to the fact that Lance, Pidge, and Hunk are missing rather than having snuck out of runaway, but the moment that Lance touches Blue a thick, large blue V is painted onto Griffin's chest right below the lei that Hunk left on him all those years ago. It matches perfectly with where the V on Lance's Paladin armor rests. 

Griffin will get more marks in the future, but nothing will ever be as large as the V on his chest. 

There is no event that shapes Lance more than his position as a Voltron Paladin does. 

 


	2. as we grow, as we change

Space is strange for a lot of reasons, but one of the things Lance finds most intriguing is the different types of soulmates that exist across the universe. Every species he meets is different than the last - Altean’s have timers on their wrists, the Balmera are given crystal necklaces at birth which change colors with their soulmates emotions and a mer’s tail shifts similarly, and Galra tell their soulmate by a smell unique to them, something that smells perfect to the Galra. It’s interesting to see the way that they interact across pairings of different species - to see both the crystal Shay has that reflects Hunk’s moods and the tattoos covering her body. 

It’s interesting. 

It makes Lance treasure his marks more, makes him think how amazing it is that he has the bond he has with his soulmate. 

Lance’s time as a Paladin begins leaving marks on Griffin’s skin, more than just the Paladin V that covers Griffin’s chest. Each of the other Paladins leave a mark, a sign of Lance’s connection to them. A microchip behind Griffin’s ear for Pidge, the kanji for trust in the crook of an elbow for Shiro, a small line of tightly bound chain down the back of his calf for Keith because the two of them are connected in so many ways that the two of them are bound too tightly to ever pull away from each other. Allura leaves three tiny mice running up Griffin’s foot and Coran settles as a thin soundwave of laughter on his wrist.  It’s not that surprising, because Lance treasures his bonds with people and his relationships mark him easily because of it.

 

 

Griffin graduates from the Garrison, gets chosen for a special mission and gains a team. They don’t mark Lance the way that Lance’s team has marked him. Rizavi and Leifsdottir are his friends and Griffin enjoys their relationship, but his relationships don’t mark as easily as Lance’s do. 

He and Rizavi learn that they share a mark while changing into their flight suits one day. Griffin has white ginger flowers around his ankle while Rizavi has them sprouting up between her shoulder blades. Their placement is symbolic of something that keeps the marker strong, keeps them standing tall. 

Griffin has never bothered to look up the flowers behind finding out what type they are. He figures that one day he’ll meet his soulmate and they’ll be able to tell him what each of his marks mean. Rizavi doesn’t share the belief, has spent her entire life looking up possible meanings for each of her marks. 

 _White gingers are sometimes called Mariposas,_  she tells him as she’s crouched in front of him, his ankle in her hand as she twisted it around and examines the flowers. She’s curious about all marks and the fact that they have matching one is more intriguing then anything else at the moment. Griffin has never been the kind of person that views his marks as intensely personal, so he doesn’t mind the scrutiny. He actually feels more awkward about the fact that she does this while in nothing but a bra, Griffin having caught sight of her marks after she pulled her shirt off but before she could get her uniform shirt on.He’s never actually seen boobs before, but Rizavi’s are suddenly right there. He already knows that he’s not really interested in them, he’s known for a while now, but that doesn’t mean that it’s any less embarrassing to have them in front of him like this.  _Mariposas are Cuba’s national flower. I’m pretty sure it means my soulmate is Cuban. Maybe yours is too._

 _Maybe,_ Griffin agrees. 

He doesn’t really care if his soulmate is Cuban or not, knows that there could be a million reasons why he has white gingers on him and knows that he’ll love whoever it is regardless of where their from.

Still, he finds himself thinking about Lance McClain for the first time. He’s not entirely certain, but he thinks that Lance was Cuban.

He dismisses the thought pretty quickly. 

He doesn’t know if Lance McClain is his soulmate or not, but he does know Lance has been missing for a year and it’s not really worth dwelling on a missing kid he barely knows. 

 

 

Shiro goes missing. 

Lance starts piloting Red. 

The V on Griffin’s chest stays blue, but it gains a red outline. Lance will always be the Blue Paladin, but now he’s the red one was well. 

In just the right light, Griffin thinks the red outline looks like dripping blood. Lance accepts his place as the new Red Paladin, but Blue’s rejection stings and it cuts him in ways that no one else understands. Keith swapped Lions as well, but he never had to deal with Red’s rejection, just Black’s acceptance. 

 

 

Rizavi’s soulmate turns out to be Lance McClain’s big sister, Veronica. 

They find out right before a supply mission, when Veronica shows up and basically tells them that she’s going with them. Rizavi notices the mark on Veronica’s neck, a phrase in Hindi that Rizavi’s grandmother has said all the time before her death, and feels that instinctive gut feeling that comes with seeing  a mark that belongs to you. 

On the way to the supplies, Rizavi insists on showing Veronica the marks all over her body and asking Veronica what they mean. It’s a question that only Veronica knows the answer to, something she’ll know instinctively when she sees them. 

She makes eyes on Griffin - all wiggling eyebrows and quiet ‘I-Told-You-So’s when Veronica says that the flowers on Rizavi’s back are for her family and that their Mariposas because Veronica has grown up in a family that prides themselves on their Cuban culture.

It makes Griffin feel that much worse when they have to leave Veronica there, fairly certain that she’s going to die trying to make sure they can get away. 


	3. witnessing and wanting

They know that Veronica is alive, because Rizvadi's marks haven't disappeared. But she doesn't return to the Garrison so they assume the Galra have taken her for some reason.

(Rizvadi lives in fear that one day she will wake up and that will no longer be true, her marks will be gone and there will be nothing she can do.

Griffin does not tell her that it is a nightmare he has lived through. He does not talk about the night he woke feeling _wrong_  and knowing exactly why. He does not tell her about standing shirtless in front of a bathroom mirror, harsh light shining down on him, and finding the colors gone from his chest. The is no lei made of bright colors around his collar, no Campbell Teal on his ripcage with his bold feathers, no blue V spanning the entirety of his chest.

He doesn't talk about choking on panic and fear and grief for a boy he's never met.

He doesn't talk about seeing the colors fade back in, ghostly pale at first. He doesn't talk about sleeping in his bathtub with his body angled towards the mirror, watching the colors come back until he can't stay awake any longer. He does not talk about crying as relief and happiness flooded through him.

He does not talk about the fear that still linger, does not talk about how often he stretches his arms out just so he can see the kanji in his arm and make sure that it's still there.)

Veronica is the first person under Griffin's command to get captured, the first person that his mistakes will effect the lives of.

A mariposa wraps around Lance's ankle - a permanent reminder of Griffin's first command failure and the girl whose back he will never stop having nightmares about.

 

 

Veronica turns up.

She arrives at the Garrison with supplies, rebels, and most of her family.

Rizvadi flings herself at Veronica, wrapping her arms tightly around her soulmate.

Griffin stands back with Leifsdottir and Kinkade, content to let Rizvadi and Veronica have their moment before they have to start moving supplies and figuring out what to do with the rebels. He lets out a breath he's been holding for weeks.

 

 

Months past.

Griffin has front row seats to the development of Veronica and Rizvadi's relationship, watching as they go from women who know they are made each other to women who _believe_  that they are made for each other, as they go from acquaintances to close friends to lovers.

Griffin has never longed to meet his soulmate.

His parents had believed, before their meeting, that if they waited long enough and lived their lives, then someday they would be led to each other. After all, how could they be perfect for each other if they had to go out of their way to meet each other? A relationship, they told him, was not seemless, but there would be no relationship if you couldn't find a place in each other's lives, if one of you had to give everything up to be with the other. That was no a relationship, that was not what it should be like when you were destined for each other.

Waiting had worked for his parents, believing that one day they would meet each other because that was their destiny, and it worked for Griffin.

Even that night when he had been terrified that he had lost them, he had not longed for them to be by his side so much as he longed for them to continue their life, for them to live and for the two of them to get the chance to meet at one point.

So Griffin has never longed to meet his soulmate.

But he watches Rizvadi and Veronica fall together, sees the ease with which they fit together and how happy they make each other, and thinks that it wouldn't be so bad to have that himself, thinks that it wouldn't be so bad if his met his soulmate sooner rather then later.

 

 

He and Kinkade are together, Griffin was working out while Kinkade sat nearby and occasionally made the kind of teasing comments that motivated Griffin to prove to him just how wrong he was, when they get a call to report to command.

When they get there their told that the Paladins are approaching the solar system, that their leaving their Lions on another planet in the system and coming down to Earth another way, that their team is being sent out to pick them up. Half the team will make the pick up while the other half stays at command as support, ready to race out and help if needed.

Griffin knows he'll be one of the ones picking the Paladins up, as the team leader he would never stay behind while the others charged into danger. His first instinct is to take Kinkade with him, because Kinkade is his closest friend and a sniper and they compliment each other in ways that Rizvadi and Leifsdottir don't compliment them, but as the team is leaving, he sees Rizvadi and Veronica catch each other's eyes.

He remembers that Lance McClain is not only one of Voltron's Paladins, but also Veronica's little brother. He imagines that it'd be easier for Veronica if Rizvadi was there when Lance was picked up, if there was someone there that she loved and whom she could trust with her baby brother.

 

Griffin leaves Kinkade and Leifsdottir at the Garrison.   
Rizvadi drives the second cruiser.


	4. with opening eyes

Griffin really, really hates Keith Kogane. So there was something incredibly validating about reaching the Paladins and getting to chew him out for the stupid shit he had his team doing.

He's still basking in that small joy when Rizavi raises her voice, asking the group, "Which one of you is Lance McClain?"

There's a moment where the group glances around in cautious confusion.

Then the paladin with the blue armor and red gun - which Griffin thinks looks incredibly stupid - raises his hand.

"I am," he says. His voice is deeper than Griffin remembers Lance McClain's voice being, but he can still hear the underlying accent. The part of him that spent weeks watching McClain and wondering idlely if they were soulmates can still remember the way that Lance's mouth curved around his words. Griffin had been particularly fascinated by Lance's mouth. "Why?"

Rizavi didn't answer.

Instead she walks across the space between them until she stands in front of him.

Griffin let her do her thing while keeping an eye out for danger around them. He knew how important Veronica was to Rizavi and how important Lance was to Veronica. They could afford a few moments for her to check in on him.

"Take your helmet off," Rizavi said, voice sharp and commanding.

The Paladin exchanged a glance with the Paladin in yellow - Griffin appreciated that his weapon matches his armor - before reaching up. His fingers caught on latches on the bottom, then he pulled the helmet up and off.

Between a face filled with baby fat and big brown eyes, Lance McClain had been cute for most of the time Griffin had known him.

He'd started growing a bit more the year that he disappeared, growing tall and muscular under the fighting class program. He'd let his hair grow a little longer than he usually did, letting it grow a little wild instead of keeping it short and slicked back. He had started veering more towards an older type of maturity. That had probably been why Griffin's eyes had caught on him that year, because Lance was attractive and funny and the flowers growing on Griffin's ankle could have belonged to him.

Lance was even more attractive now. He was still wearing his armor so it wasn't as though Griffin could see much more than his face, but there was a confidence in the line of Lance's shoulders that hadn't been there and his body language quieter like he was settled and unconcerned with with whether or not he was catching attention.

"Mm....You don't look like you have an scars."

"Well, not on my face no." Rizavi hummed, reaching up to set her hand on Lance's chin. He jerked, but not enough to loosen her grip on him. "Excuse me? I'm not really comfortable with a girl I don't know touching me like this."

"Deal with it. I need to catch you out before I take you back to your sister."

Lance froze. It gave Rizavi enough control of his body to tilt his head to one side so she could examine the side of his face. Then he murmured, "You know Veronica?"

"Yup. She's my soulmate. She asked me to come make sure her baby brother was still in one piece." Griffin was relatively sure that that wasn't exactly what had happened, but it wasn't really his business so he didn't bother correcting her.

"Her soulmate? V met her soulmate while I was in space?"

"Yup."

Rizavi moved Lance's head to the other side.

It wasn't very far, but it was enough for Griffin to catch sight of the round triskelion tucked behind Lance's ear, sharp lines visible on Lance's dark skin.

Looking at the mark, he found himself thinking about his mother wrapping him in her arms as a toddler and pressing sticky lipstick kisses all over his face. He found himself thinking about sitting at the kitchen table with his father when he was back from deployment, listening to the radio while they put together lego airplanes. He found himself thinking about his teenage years and how every time he came back from the Garrison, he was greeted with a table full of all of his favorite foods and hugs that enveloped him entirely.

When his vision cleared, he looked at the mark behind Lance's ear and felt a sharp pull of possessiveness in his gut.

"Oh," Griffin said, speaking without meaning to. He must have spoken louder than he meant to because he felt every single eye in the vicinity turn to him. "You're my soulmate."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been forever since I updated this thing and I feel bad for that, but at least I got around to it finally?? Hopefully people still enjoy this lil ship and this lil fic. 
> 
> It might be worth mentioning for any new reader that this story was started prior to season eight and for any old readers to know that I haven't watched season eight! So lots of information might contradict that, particularly in relation to character origins and relationships and such.


End file.
